Severini, Gino (1883-1966)

Italian painter. One of the leading Futurists, he developed a semi-abstract style to express movement and dynamism, as in Suburban Train Arriving in Paris 1915 (Tate Gallery, London). He later turned to a more traditional style.

Moving to Paris 1906, he was strongly influenced by both cubism and the Neo-Impressionism of Seurat, and played a leading role in introducing French movements to the Futurists. Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabarin 1912 (Museum of Modern Art, New York) is a typical work from this period. He expounded his ideas in the book From Cubism to Classicism 1921.

During the 1920s he returned to a more traditional, representational style, which he used in his frescoes and mosaics for churches and other buildings in Switzerland and Italy. Later still he returned to an elegant cubism derived from the works of his friend Juan Gris.